Éric Tétrault, left, candidate for a byelection in the Louis-Hebert riding, speaks at a news conference as Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, right, looks on in Quebec City on August 15, 2017. Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard says it was clear his party's candidate in an upcoming byelection had no choice but to step down. Tétrault withdrew from the race Wednesday night after La Presse wrote about the existence of a report for his former employer on the candidate's psychological harassment of employees.Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Scarlet Letter is a classic American novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850, about the Puritan shaming of a woman for having a child out of wedlock. The cloth letter in the title, which the woman is made to wear, is A, for adulteress.

One hundred sixty-seven years later, the letter of disgrace has changed. Worn in the media instead of cloth, the letter is H, for harasser.

The warning bears repeating: Here in Canada, since the 2014 criminal accusations of sexual assault against former CBC Radio star Jian Ghomeshi (who was acquitted last year), even unproven allegations of harassment are sufficient to damage or destroy the careers of public figures. The accused is presumed guilty unless proven innocent.

In Quebec, two members of the National Assembly remain suspended from the Liberal caucus even after prosecutors declined to pursue charges against them arising from complaints of sexual assault, against Gerry Sklavounos, and sexual harassment, against Pierre Paradis.

In Paradis’s case, the prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to meet the requirement in criminal law of proving a charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Sklavounos’s, they flatly concluded after investigating the complaint that “no criminal act has been committed.” Several other women, however, complained to newspapers or Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard’s office that Sklavounos had harassed them.

And on Wednesday, Quebec politics was rocked by what is believed to be the unprecedented withdrawal of two election candidates in the same riding on the same day.

This was after newspapers learned that the candidates for the Liberal and Coalition Avenir Québec parties in the Oct. 2 byelection in the Quebec City riding of Louis-Hébert had left previous jobs over allegations that they had psychologically harassed employees.

In the case of the CAQ’s Normand Sauvageau, the damage to the party may have been contained by statements by Sauvageau and Coalition leader François Legault. Sauvageau said he hadn’t told the party why he had left his job, and Legault said he acted decisively in dismissing Sauvageau as soon as he learned the reason.

The case of Liberal Éric Tétrault, however, was the latest example of that party’s sheer political incompetence under Couillard.

Maybe it’s because the Liberals aren’t assured of winning either the byelection in Louis-Hébert or the general election due by October 2018 that they seemed to have trouble recruiting a more suitable candidate.

Tétrault was a risky choice for a party struggling to distance itself from its own recent past under former premier Jean Charest, and to defend itself against smears by association with alleged corruption.

Not only had Tétrault been a senior member of the former premier’s staff, he had been successively associated with several well-known names linked in turn to various political scandals.

So, he was on the defensive from the announcement of his candidacy in Louis-Hébert. What’s more, Tétrault said he had told the party about the harassment allegations, and it went ahead and nominated him anyway.

Inevitably, the allegations surfaced. Even after they did, however, and several Liberal ministers declined to express confidence in their party’s candidate, Couillard hesitated for several hours before cutting him loose.

And then he did so only after Legault had shown him up by immediately dumping Sauvageau.

Even before Tétrault was dropped, some Liberals were reported to have already written off the seat, which former Liberal MNA Sam Hamad had won five times since 2003.

Now they are in more danger of losing Louis-Hébert. And Liberals have more reason to dread a 33-day general-election campaign behind Couillard.

Related

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.